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My friend has this 2001 M5 shipped straight to California from Germany back in 2005. He paid ~$8 to have it converted to meet U.S. and emission standards, paid $2k for shipping and ~$7k for import and custom fees. It only has 36k original miles and has not been driven much since came ashore. I guess he was young and didn't know what he was doing.

All in all, he spent $25k (including buying new wheels and tires and some minor repairs) to get it to the U.S., in addition to whatever you paid in Germany.

Two yrs ago, he backed up into a pole and caused a big dent on the rear passenger door. An autobody shop estimated $2k for the repair and another $1.5k for some other minor stuff. The repair has never been done.

He ran out of money and never got the car registered into DMV. DMV registration fee and used sales tax will add another $8k to the money already spent.

How much do you think the car is worth as it is? It cannot be legally driven on the street until it's registered, which costs $8k. Would anyone pay top dollars for it as a parts car or bother to spend money to get it properly registered. The car has been sitting in the garage most of the time since 2005.